New Report Suggests Americans Want Gender Equality in the Workplace, Not So Much at Home

According to a Pew Research Center study, more and more Americans are in support of gender equality in the workplace—maybe just not at home.

The survey, which pulled from polls conducted between 1977 to 2016 with 27,000 participants across generations (Silent, Boomer, Gen X and Millennial), mostly confirmed what we’ve always known to be true: women perceive differences between genders to be based on societal norms, whereas men point to biology.

When it comes to gender equality, it’s unsurprising that two-thirds of Americans and three-quarters of millennials (the only generation to believe women are more equal at home than at work) lean egalitarian, but, as the New York Times points out, many believe “women should have the same opportunities as men to work or participate in politics, [but] they should do more homemaking and child-rearing.”

There are a few factors that could explain the regressive beliefs of some Americans: more women are doing paid work than ever before, but men are not doing more domestic work—falling back onto traditional gender roles that allow them the privilege of not having to do the dishes while potentially enjoying a two-income household.

Workplace policies, too, are to blame: as Sarah Thébaud, a sociologist at the University of California told the New York Times in 2015, benefits like paid family leave, subsidized child care and flexible schedules were put into place when men were expected to be breadwinners and women were perceived to be caregivers. Women are expected to use them, men not so much.